A blog about genealogy and thoughts about the various roots and branches of my family tree as well as the times in which my ancestors lived.Included are the West, White,and McFarland families.WARNING:DO NOT TAKE ALL OF MY FAMILY RECORDS AS GOSPEL. ALWAYS CONFIRM YOUR OWN RESEARCH!

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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

They are forecasting another snow storm here and it mightmake this the snowiest December on record for the Bostonarea.

It put me in mind of "Snowbound", a poem by John GreenleafWhittier that I had to read at some point at St Mathew'sParochial School in Dorchester when I was a kid. It's a longpoem, but these lines from the first verse seem to suithow December has been this year:

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

I'm extremely flattered to have been given the ProximidadeAward by the footnote Maven, a genea-blogger who certainlyprecisely fits the definition of the Award. She's always readyto help with a piece of art or a bit of good advice on genealogicalmatters and source citations.

Now I in turn must present 8 more bloggers with the Awardand hope that I haven't duplicated someone else's choices!The trouble is I have no idea how long this has beencirculating so I most likely will be choosing folks whowere previoulsy chosen. But at any rate, here theyare:

Sunday, December 28, 2008

The topic of the 63rd Carnival of Genealogy is our New YearsResolutions for our genealogy research. I thought I'd look back atlast December's list and see how I did before making the 2009list with how I did in boldface:

"Well, it’s that time of year when folks make New Year’sresolutions and we genealogy bloggers are busy making our lists.So here’s mine.

One, to break that John Cutter West brick wall. (nope. not yet)

Two, to spend more time on my maternal line. I’ve found somuchlately about Dad’s side of the family that I feel like I’veneglectedthe Whites and McFarlands. So I’ll research more andblog moreabout them and try to break down those brick wallsas well. (notmuch progress here.)

Three, to get my files better organized and correctly cite mysources.(umm...yeah...needs work still)

Four, try to make it out to Ohio some time next year to visitwith my Aunt Dorothy and my cousins, including Diana andLouise. (Yes! Had a great time and you can read about it in myRoad Trip series of posts.)

Five, try to get OUT to do research at the BPL main branch,theNEGHS, the Massachusetts State Archives and theHinghamFamily Search Center. (I made it to the HinghamFHS Centertwice and that's it.)

Six, get all the pictures scanned. I am considering rearrangingmy work station. At present, the printer is on the top shelf andgetting up and down to place or remove pictures may be goodformy health but it sure slows down the process. I may swap fit where the cpu sits on the desk. As a result, still havepictureswaiting to be scanned.)

Seven, come up with more genealogy related uses for flutaphones!(Sucess! But I'm worried about Janice Brown who instigatedmy flutaphonelist. Janice, where are you? We miss you!)

So, we’ll see how well I’ve done by next New Years!"

So given the successes and failures of this year's list, here's theresolutions for 2009:

One, keep chipping away at the John Cutter West brick wall.

Two, do more research on my White and McFarland ancestry and blog moreon them.

Three, well, exact same as last year, work on organizing my files andsource citations.

Four, stay in touch with Aunt Dot and the rest of my Ohio relatives and sharewhat I find about our family history with them.

Five, get out to the Hingham FHS, the NEGHS, the Boston Public Library,the Mass State Archives. I'm also adding the Boston Archdiocese Archiveswhen it reopens sometime next year.

Six, work on getting all the pictures scanned.

Seven, try to keep from getting bogged down on Facebook with applicationrequests. To that end, I'm not accepting any new apps. I hope this doesn'toffend anyone whose invitations I decline but when the requests get up intothe 70 and 80 request range, it cuts into the research time.

So those are my genealogical resolutions for 2009. Let's see if I can dobetter with them than I did with the 2008 list. Tune in next year to find out!

Monday, December 22, 2008

I've been a bit of a slacker lately with my geneablogging but I hopeto take up that slack in the coming days. I am planning a post onmy ancestor Simon Willard who I hadn't realized was such a prominentfigure in 17th century Massachusetts, And in the course of researchingSimon, I discovered that through him I'm a distant cousin of MiriamRobbins Midkiff of Ancestories (9th, twice removed, Miriam tells me).

Hmm. There's another post I need to do, an update on the cousins I'vefound through this blog.

I am also planning to write about my ancestors from Andover,Massachusetts based on what I've learned from Elinor Abbot's book,"Our Company Proceeds Apace"and examine the connections thatcarried over into the settlement of Oxford County, Maine.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Dear Genea-Santa, It's been a very good year for me genealogy wise on my Dad's side of thefamily, so I guess I'd like some things that would come from my Mom'sfamily for Genea-Christmas:

1. A White Family Bible to go along with the West Family Bible that Aunt Dot gave me for my birthday. Of course, I hope that the White Bible would have the family birth, death, and marriage dates filled in.

2. A picture of my Mom's Dad, Edward Francis White, Sr. I'd like to know what he looked like. All pictures of him were removed from the family album and destroyed so this would fill in a big gap.

3. Some letters that my Great-Grandmother Anna Kelly McFarland might have exchanged with her parents that might shed light on her experiences here in a new country in the late 19th century.

I know these are mighty tall orders, so I'll settle for whatever genealogicaldiscoveries you can send my way(or nudge me towards)in the upcoming year.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

footnoteMaven is continuing her geneablogger caroling traditionso I'm chiming in with the 16th century hymn "Gaudete" whichI hear played everyday at work over the store speakers as performedby the Irish choral group Anuna. Enjoy!

Monday, December 01, 2008

When we were kids we didn't have very many holiday traditions.Holiday meals were divided between our house and my Aunt andUncle's place: if Thanksgiving was at our place, was Christmas was attheirs, and New Year's Day we played by ear, depending on how latethe adults had been out on New Year's Eve.

Holiday dinners at Aunt Emily and Uncle Ed's was served in two stages:first, the traditional turkey and all the usual vegetables. Then Nonny, AuntEmily's Mom, would bring out the Italian food: lasagna, meatballs, eggplant,and other dishes whose names I don't recall. My Dad liked Italian food andlasagna became a standard dish that was served at least once at either Christmasor New Year's. Dad was also the designated turkey cooker for Thanksgiving,getting up at 6am on Thanksgiving Day to get "the bird" started.

Some families out their Christmas trees up the day after Thanksgiving, but weoften waited until Christmas Eve before even going out to purchase a tree! Thisoften led to disagreements between Mom and Dad about the way the tree looked.(Especially after we got it home. Christmas trees look better in a badly lit parkinglot than they do in the harsh reality of the living room lamplight.) Eventually theage of artificial Christmas trees arrived and we struggled with inserting thebranches into the "trunk" in the proper order. Another Christmas Eve tradition wasthe last minute gift wrapping. No matter how early Mom might have started hershopping, there was always some gifts to wrap, usually those for our cousins thatwould be delivered that very night or next day when we went to their house fordinner.

A lot has changed over the years. Uncle Ed and Aunt Emily and their family movedout of state. After my sister married, the holiday dinners rotated between her houseand our parents. Cheryl and her husband Pete began the tradition of exchanginggifts at their house on Christmas Eve, which this year will move to her daughterSarah's house for the first time. Cheryl and Pete's Christmas tree is live and isdecorated with ornaments that they've accumulated over the years and that havesignificance for their 3 children. And somebody at one of the holiday dinners makeslasagna.

So some traditions have continued, while others have been replaced by new ones!

You can read more of my Christmas memories by clicking on the "Christmas"label in the list on the right hand side of the screen.